A Pound for Every Blessing

If the amount of pounds gained is any indication of how good a birthday was, then you can tell that I had a VERY good birthday this year.
Really, though, it was so good. Besides a nasty looking zit on my nose and a chest cold, I got lots of love for my birthday. I felt spoiled rotten, really. I won't go into details since I really do feel like I'm sounding more and more like those blogs I hate to read. You know the kind... "la dee da. My life is perfect. You should be more like me. Yadeeyadeeyada." But I must say THANK YOU to everyone who gave me a shout out. It's surprising how much it means. Even the littlest things, like an email... so...

THANK YOU!

With all of my heart!!

In particular, thank you to my friends. For the deliciously delightful cake. For the fun Scattergories game in my honor. For the many many many belly laughs in only two hours time. For the gift card. For the poem. Espescially for the poem. And then the cute pic. BFF's!!

And now that summer is officially here (well, school got out for us yesterday so that makes it offical, doesn't it?), how about some more activity ideas. The ones I'm most excited about:

• Treasure Hunts!!

• Plan a treasure hunt with each clue leading to the next location of the next
  clue. You can use a set of plastic easter eggs, but you definitely don't need to. We won't. Children as young as two could play the game if you used pictures instead of words. The final clue will lead to a treasure. (I got some little "treasures" to have on hand. A bag of gold coins, a small toy from the dollar store, movie passes, etc.) For older children, the clues could be riddles they need to solve. One good thought is to limit the number of clues to the age of the child.

  Make a treasure map that would lead to the treasure.

If you wanted to, you could make a map that looks really old. Use a piece of white paper and draw a map. Include compass points or any verse or written clues that may be needed. Tear the edges off the paper to give it the roughened look. Wipe a wet tea-bag over both sides of the page. The page will turn a light brown color. The page should be soaked through by the time you are finished. Crumple it in a ball and let dry over night. Gently open the map and wipe both sides with cooking oil. Blot off excess with paper towels.

• Use a single type of paper to make the letters that spell out the location of the treasure (e.g. guest bed). The kids need to find the letters, then unscramble the word to figure out where the treasure is.
• Write up a list of common objects and have the kids find every item. If there's lots of kids, divide them into teams, and then give each team a list.
• Get a roll of 100 pennies or any collection of coins. Either hide the change around the house or toss it on the lawn or a gravel driveway. Kids will spend lots of time making sure they've found every coin.